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Nato: a history of the present
When the Warsaw Pact crumbled alongside the USSR, it would have made sense for Nato to disband too — but Nato was always about political control of the West, as well as defence from the East, explains KEITH FLETT
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STILL MARCHING: A May Day demo makes its way through London, 1973
Features / 1 May 2025
1 May 2025

KEITH FLETT revisits the 1978 origins of Britain’s May Day bank holiday — from Michael Foot’s triumph to Thatcher’s reluctant acceptance — as Starmer’s government dodges calls to expand our working-class celebrations

Features / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025
From bemoaning London’s ‘cockneys’ invading seaside towns to negotiating holiday rents, the founders of scientific socialism maintained a wry detachment from Victorian Easter customs while using the break for health and politics, writes KEITH FLETT
TURNING POINT: The anti-cuts plan put forward by Tony Benn (
Features / 31 March 2025
31 March 2025
Facing economic turmoil, Jim Callaghan’s government rejected Tony Benn’s alternative economic strategy in favour of cuts that paved the way for Thatcherism — and the cuts-loving Labour of the present era, writes KEITH FLETT
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor of the Exchequer
Features / 17 March 2025
17 March 2025
Starmer’s slash-and-burn approach to disability benefits represents a fundamental break with Labour’s founding mission to challenge the idle rich rather than punish the vulnerable poor, argues KEITH FLETT
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Claudia Jones
Features / 27 February 2025
27 February 2025
From McCarthy’s prison cells to London’s carnival, Jones fought for peace and unity while exposing the lies of US imperialism, says ROBERT GRIFFITHS, in a graveside oration at Highgate Cemetery given last Sunday
FUELLING CONFLICT: Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte (right)
Features / 19 October 2024
19 October 2024
Ian Sinclair interviews MEDEA BENJAMIN and DAVID SWANSON about their new book on Nato, explaining how the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia established a template for military interventions, undermining international law and diplomacy
WAR NOT PEACE EVERYTIME: US 82nd airborne division paratroop
Books / 8 August 2024
8 August 2024
TOMASZ PIERSCIONEK welcomes a succinct demonstration of how Nato became a vehicle for the US to pursue its dreams of global dominance
Starmer and Sunak arrive for their BBC debate in Nottingham
Features / 30 June 2024
30 June 2024
KEITH FLETT offers some historical context to the election campaign’s final period